By Dave Winer on Saturday, March 31, 2012 at 7:23 PM.
It was a good thing I went to visit Mom today. She says it's time to get a new TV, because this one isn't working anymore. I said that's great because it's an old TV, one that I bought in Boston in 2003 and gave to my parents when I moved back to Calif in 2006. It was super expensive then, but it was a flat-screen LCD, and was a revolutionary product. But it's 9 years old. They make much better TVs for much less these days. And I love buying electronics. So I was excited to get to buy a new TV for Mom. A chance to learn what's new in TVs, if anything.
So we went to lunch and talked about lots of things. I asked what was wrong with the TV. Turns out her remote needed new batteries. So no new TV now. She's happy with the one she has.
Then we sat down to watch basketball and she put on CBS and I thought this picture really sucks. I know she has FIOS and I know they have HD. So I looked at the channel lineup and we switched from Channel 2 to 502. What a difference!
So Mom got the big upgrade anyway.
Moral of the story -- it's a good idea to visit your mother from time to time. She may have HD and not know it, and her remote might need new batteries.